Arc-1 review

What it is

Arc-1 is a longevity-positioned direct-to-consumer storefront selling prescription products per dose rather than by subscription. Its menu spans sermorelin, NAD⁺, glutathione, rapamycin, metformin, enclomiphene, B12 and ED medication, alongside compounded semaglutide and tirzepatide priced per strength. It advertises a $0 consultation fee, free expedited shipping, a 30-day satisfaction guarantee, and displays a LegitScript Certified badge on its product pages.

How it works

A virtual consultation gates the purchase, and a licensed clinician reviews before anything ships — but the experience is built as a checkout rather than a clinical relationship, and it shows. There is no lab work in the default path, which is worth pausing on given what is on the shelf: rapamycin and metformin are approved drugs being sold for off-label longevity use, and prescribing those without a workup is a meaningfully different proposition from prescribing a vitamin. One practical warning from our verification: although Arc-1 markets per-dose, no-subscription purchasing, its cart has shown items flagged as deferred, subscription or recurring. Read the checkout terms carefully and confirm in writing whether your order renews.

Pricing transparency

Arc-1 publishes per-dose pricing for its compounded GLP-1s, and those figures climb with strength rather than staying flat — the practical consequence being that your monthly cost rises as you titrate up. It does not publish peptide or NAD⁺ pricing in the same way, so we are not quoting a sermorelin figure. The $0 consultation fee and free shipping are real and worth something. Before ordering, settle three things: the price at the dose you would actually end up on rather than the starting dose, whether the order is one-time or recurring, and what the 30-day satisfaction guarantee covers for a prescription product that generally cannot be returned once dispensed.

Branded vs compounded

Compounded; not FDA-approved. Prescription required only if a licensed provider finds it appropriate. The compounded products are pharmacy preparations, not therapeutically equivalent to branded drugs, and no pharmacy partner is named. The menu needs unpacking by evidence tier rather than read as a single longevity stack. Sermorelin acts on the growth-hormone axis — a real mechanism with thin long-term outcome data. Injectable NAD⁺ has no controlled human outcome trials; oral NR and NMN are the studied forms and they raise blood NAD⁺ rather than a demonstrated clinical outcome. Injectable glutathione has essentially no controlled human outcome evidence for the claims made about it. Rapamycin and metformin are approved drugs — for transplant rejection and type 2 diabetes respectively — sold here off-label for longevity; rapamycin extends lifespan in mice, which is a robust animal result and not a human one, and metformin's longevity case rests on observational analyses of diabetic populations that cannot establish benefit in healthy people. Off-label prescribing is legal and often reasonable. It is not evidence of effect. Individual results vary.

Pros and watch-outs

The evidence behind what Arc-1 prescribes

We grade the molecules, not the marketing. Here is what the human data actually shows for each thing on their menu.

• Sermorelin: a real GHRH drug, read against the anti-aging pitch

  An approved growth-hormone-releasing analog with a pediatric track record — and a longevity case built more on biomarkers than outcomes.

• NAD+ precursors (NR and NMN): what the human trials actually show

  They raise NAD+ and look safe short-term — but human evidence is surrogate-marker level, and no trial shows they extend healthspan.

• Glutathione: the master antioxidant, and where the evidence actually is

  Oral glutathione really does raise your body stores (a 6-month RCT proved it) — but the longevity and detox claims are unproven, skin-lightening is modest, and IV glutathione is the most marketed, least evidenced route. The precursors may be the smarter bet.

How Arc-1 compares

A few alternatives worth a look, depending on what you’re optimizing for.

• AgelessRx

  Sermorelin from a longevity-medicine practice

  See AgelessRx →
• Defy Medical

  The widest physician-supervised peptide menu with lab testing

  See Defy Medical →
• SLSystem Labs

  NAD⁺ bundled with glutathione, B-12 and sermorelin from one service

  See System Labs →